Raziuddin Aquil

Fellow in History

Ph.D. (Jawaharlal Nehru University, India)

Research Interests:   

Religion and Politics in Medieval India, Sufism, Indo-Islamic Literature
 

Courses Taught:

Islamic History and Culture, Islam in Medieval India
 

SELECTED LIST OF PUBLICATIONS:

Books/Monographs/Chapters in Edited Volumes:

• History in the Vernacular, co-edited with Partha Chatterjee (Delhi/Ranikhet: Permanent Black, 2008).

• ‘The Study of Islam and Indian History at the Darul Musannefin, Azamgarh’, in Raziuddin Aquil and Partha Chatterjee, eds, History in the Vernacular (Delhi/Ranikhet: Permanent Black, 2008), pp. 322-56.

• ‘On Islam and Kufr in the Delhi Sultanate: Towards a Re-interpretation of Ziya’ al-Din Barani’s Fatawa-i Jahandari’, in Rajat Datta, ed., Rethinking a Millennium: Perspectives on Indian History from the Eighth to the Eighteenth Century, Essays for Harbans Mukhia (Delhi: Aakar Books, 2008), pp. 168-97

• Sufism, Culture and Politics: Afghans and Islam in Medieval North India (Oxford University Press,New Delhi,2007).

•  ‘From Dar-ul-Harb to Dar-ul-Islam?: Chishti Sufi Accounts and the Emergence of Islam in the Delhi Sultanate’, in Satish Saberwal and Mushirul Hasan, eds, Assertive Religious Identities: India and Europe, Delhi: Manohar, 2006, pp. 59-84.

•  ‘Miracles, Authority and Benevolence: Stories of Karamat in Sufi Literature of the Delhi Sultanate’, in Anup Taneja, ed., Sufi Cults and the Evolution of Medieval Indian Culture, ICHR Monograph Series 9, ICHR and Northern Book Centre, Delhi, 2003, pp. 109-38.

Forthcoming Publications:

• In the Name of Allah: Understanding Islam and Indian History (forthcoming in 2009).

• ‘Refashioning Devotional Islam: Sufi Traditions in the Modern Age’, in Shirin Maswood, Ritwika Biswas and Amit Dey, eds, Between Tradition and Modernity: Aspects of Islam in South Asia (forthcoming).

•  “Sab sis nuwa ardas karo, aur har dam bolo wah guru”: Celebrations of Guru Nanak’s Career in Classical Urdu Literature’, Proceedings of a Seminar on Sufi and Bhakti Convergences, Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University (forthcoming).

Work in Progress:          

• ‘The Miracles of the Sufis: Stories of Karamat in Indian Islamic Literature’ (under preparation)

·         'The Chishti Sufis of the Delhi Sultanate’ (under preparation)

Journal Articles/ Miscellaneous Publications:

• ‘Hazrat-i-Dehli: The Making of the Chishti Sufi Centre and the Stronghold of Islam’, South Asia Research, 28: 1 (February 2008), pp. 23-48

·         'A Report on Professor Nurul Hasan's Urdu, Persian and Arabic Books in the Library of Raj Bhavan,Kolkata',Occasional Paper-1,Raj Bhavan,Kolkata, 2006.

·         ‘Making Sense of the Languages of Islam in Medieval North India’, Comparative Islamic Studies, 1:1, 2005, pp. 93-106.

·         ‘Chishti Sufi Order in the Indian Subcontinent and Beyond’, Studies in History, 21:1, 2005, pp. 99-111.

·         ‘Scholars, Saints and Sultans: Some Aspects of Religion and Politics in the Delhi Sultanate’, The Indian Historical Review, 31: 1-2, 2004, pp. 210-20.

·         ‘Salvaging a Fractured Past: Reflections on Norms of Governance and Afghan-Rajput Relations in North India in the Late Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries’, Studies in History, 20:1, 2004, pp. 1-29.

·         ‘Episodes from the Life of Shaikh Farid-ud-Din Ganj-i-Shakar’, International Journal of Punjab Studies, 10: 1-2, January-December 2003, pp. 25-46.

·         ‘Reconsidering Sovereignty and Governance Under the Afghans: North India in the Late Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries’, South Asia, 26: 1, April 2003, pp. 5-21.

·         ‘Conversion in Chishti Sufi Literature (13^th-14^th Centuries)’, The Indian Historical Review, 24: 1-2, 1997-98, pp. 70-94.

·         ‘Sufi Cults, Politics and Conversion: The Chishtis of the Sultanate Period’, The Indian Historical Review, 22: 1-2, 1995-96, pp. 190-97.

Seminars/ Conference Papers:

• ‘Reason and Faith in Islam: Contemporary Challenges and their Historical Antecedents’, Seminar on Aspects of Theory and Practice of Modern Islam, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata, 18 February 2008, and in an occasional seminar at Sri Venkateswara College, New Delhi, 2 November 2007.

• ‘In the Name of Allah: Understanding Islam in Indian History and Society’, ICHR Lecture Series, New Delhi, 26 October 2007. Earlier versions of the paper were presented in an occasional seminar at Presidency College, Kolkata, 30 August 2007, and in ENRECA Concluding Conference on Political and Cultural Institutions of Development: Reflections and New Research Directions in Africa and Asia, Kampala, Uganda, 28-29 May 2007

• ‘Ziya-ud-Din Barani’s Fatawa-i-Jahandari and the Question of Hindu-Muslim Encounters in Medieval India’, Eighth CLAI Biennial International Conference, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, 18-20 January 2007.

• ‘Man of the Moment: The Intellectual Trajectory of a Persianate Mughal Gentleman in an Era of Transition, Ghulam Husain Tabatabai and his Sair-ul-Muta’akhkhirin’, International Seminar on Arabic and Persian Studies in Bengal: Peace as Value in Literature, hosted by Department of Arabic and Persian, University of Calcutta, in collaboration with the Asiatic Society, Kolkata, 20-22 March 2006.
• ‘Refashioning Devotional Islam: Sufi Traditions in the Modern Age’, National Seminar on Between Tradition and Modernity: Aspects of Islam in South Asia, Department of History, University of Calcutta, 22 February 2006.
• ‘“Sab sis nuwa ardas karo, aur har dam bolo wah guru”: Celebrations of Guru Nanak’s Career in Classical Urdu Literature’, Seminar on Sufi and Bhakti Convergences, Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, 8-10 February 2006.
• ‘Hazrat-i-Dehli: The Making of the Chishti Sufi Centre and the Stronghold of Islam’, Cultural Studies Seminar, CSSSC, 14 December 2005, and in Second International Conference on Religions and Cultures in the Indic Civilization, organized by CSDS and Manushi, New Delhi, 17-20 December 2005
• ‘On Following the Straight Path of Islam: Contemporary Challenges and their Historical Antecedents’, Symposium on Reasons of Faith: Religion in Modern Public Life, organized by WISER, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, 17-20 October 2005.

·         ‘Prisoners of the Past?: Reflections on Intellectual and Religious Traditions in Muslim Societies’, presented in the International Cultural Studies Workshop on ‘Pushing the Frontiers of Knowledge! Millennium Reflections on the Cultural Frontiers and Conditions of Knowledge production’, organized by the Centre for Basic Research, Kampala, Uganda, 8-10 August 2005.

·       ‘The Study of Islam and Indian History at the Darul Musannefin, Azamgarh’, Conference on History in the Vernacular, organized by CSSSC, Kolkata, 28-30 December 2004.

• ‘On Islam and Kufr in the Delhi Sultanate: Towards a Re-interpretation of Ziya’-ud-Din Barani’s Fatawa-i-Jahandari’, Internal Staff Seminar, CSSSC, 27 January 2004 and in Rethinking a Millennium: International Seminar in Honour of Prof. Harbans Mukhia, New Delhi, 2-4 February 2004.
•  ‘From Dar-ul-Harb to Dar-ul-Islam: Chishti Accounts of Early History of Islam in Hindustan’, International Seminar on Assertive Religious Identities, New Delhi, 16-18 October 2003. 
• ‘Aspects of Sovereignty and Governance under the Afghan Rulers in Medieval North India’, Internal Staff Seminar, CSSSC, 28 April 2003. 
• 'The Study of Religion and Politics in Medieval India’, in a workshop of college teachers at Salesian College, Sonada, Darjeeling, 28-30 March 2003.

Book Reviews: 

• Review of M. Athar Ali, Mughal India: Studies in Polity, Ideas, Society, and Culture, with a Preface by Irfan Habib, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2006, Studies in History, 23: 2, 2007.

• Review of Asim Roy, ed., Islam in History and Politics: Perspectives from South Asia, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2006, Indian Historical Review, 34: 2, 2007, pp. 256-59.

• Review of J.S. Grewal, ed., The Khalsa: Sikh and Non-Sikh Perspectives, Manohar, New Delhi, 2004, Contemporary South Asia, 15:4, 2006, pp. 497-98.

• Review of Salma Ahmed Farooqui, Islam and the Mughal State, Sundeep Prakashan,New Delhi, 2005, in The Medieval History Journal, 9:2, 2006. 

• Review of Maulana Husain Ahmad Madani, Composite Nationalism and Islam (Translated by Mohammad Anwer Hussain and Hasan Imam), Manohar, New Delhi, 2005, in Contemporary South Asia, 15:1, 2006, pp. 102-04.

• Review of Mansura Haidar, ed., Sufis, Sultans and Feudal Orders: Professor Nurul Hasan Commemoration Volume, Manohar, New Delhi, 2004, in The Sixteenth Century Journal: The Journal of Early Modern Studies, 37: 1, 2006, pp. 224-26.

• Review of Jigar Mohammed, Revenue Free land Grants in Mughal India: Awadh Region in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1658-1765), Manohar, New Delhi, 2002, in The Sixteenth Century Journal: The Journal of Early Modern Studies, 36: 3, 2005, pp. 911-13.

• Review of Iqtidar Husain Siddiqui, ed., Medieval India: Essays in Intellectual Thought and Culture Volume I, Manohar, New Delhi, 2003, in The Sixteenth Century Journal: The Journal of Early Modern Studies, 36: 2, 2005, pp. 589-91.

• Review of Kumiko Yamamoto, The Oral Background of Persian Epics: Storytelling and Poetry, Brill Studies in Middle Eastern Literatures Series. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2003, in H-Mideast-Medieval, H-Net Reviews, November 2004.
  URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=206931103555784.

• Review of Mehrdad Shokoohy, Muslim Architecture of South India: The Sultanate of Ma‘bar and the Traditions of Maritime Settlers on the Malabar and Coromandel Coasts (Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Goa), RoutledgeCurzon, London and New York, 2003, in Contemporary South Asia, 13: 2, 2004.

•  Review of Muzaffar Alam and Seema Alavi, A European Experience of the Mughal Orient, The I‘jaz-i Arsalani (Persian Letters, 1773-1779) of Antoine-Louis Henri Polier, Translated and with an Introduction, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2001, in The Indian Historical Review, 30: 1-2, 2003, pp. 210-13.

•  Review of Richard B. Barnett, ed., Rethinking early Modern India, Manohar, New Delhi, 2002, in Contemporary South Asia, 12: 4, 2003, pp. 560-62.

•  Review of Syed Ejaz Hussain, The Bengal Sultanate: Politics, Economy and Coins (AD 1205-1576), Manohar, New Delhi, 2003, in The Book Review, September 2003, pp. 27-28.

•  Review of K.N. Panikkar, et al, eds., The Making of History: Essays Presented to Irfan Habib, Anthem Press, London, 2002, in Contemporary South Asia, 12: 2, 2003, pp. 298-99.

• Review of Tarif Khalidi, ed. and trans, The Muslim Jesus: Sayings and Stories in Islamic Literature, Convergences: Inventories of the Present Series, Harvard University Press, Cambridge and London, 2001, in H-Mideast-Medieval, H-Net Reviews, June 2003. URL: http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=91511059457429.

• Review of Seema Alavi, ed., The Eighteenth century in India, Debates in Indian History and Society, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2002, and P.J. Marshall, ed., The Eighteenth century in Indian History, Evolution or Revolution? Oxford in India Readings, Themes in Indian History, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2003, in The Book Review, March 2003, pp. 14-15.

•  Review of Usha Sanyal, Devotional Islam and Politics in British India – Ahmad Riza Khan and his Movement, 1870-1920, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1996, in The Indian Historical Review, 28: 1-2, 2001 (Published in March 2003), pp. 221-23.

• Review of W.W. Hunter, The Indian Musalmans, with an Introduction by Bimal Prasad, Rupa and Co., Delhi, 2002, in The Book Review, October 2002, p. 98.

• Review of Andre Wink, Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Vol. II, The Slave Kings and the Islamic Conquest, 11^th – 13^th Centuries, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1997, in The Indian Historical Review, 25: 2, January 1999, pp. 134-37.

• Review of Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, eds.,  The Mughal State, 1526-1750, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1998, in The Indian Historical Review, 25: 1, July 1998, pp. 137-41.

• Review of I.H. Siddiqui, Perso-Arabic Sources of Information on the Life and Conditions in the Sultanate of Delhi, Delhi, 1992, in The Indian Historical Review, 24: 1-2, July 1997 & January 1998, pp. 187-89.

• Review of Eugenia Vanina, Ideas and Society in India from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1996, in Studies in History, 13: 2, 1997, pp.313-16.

• Review of Muhammad Zaki, Muslim Society in Northern India During the 15^th and First Half of the 16^th Century, K.P. Bagchi, Calcutta, 1996, in The Indian Historical Review, 23: 1-2, July 1996 & January 1997, pp. 162-64.

•  Review of Syed Hasan Askari and Qeyamuddin Ahmad, eds., The Comprehensive History of Bihar, Vol. II, Part II, K.P. Jasyaswal Research Institute, Patna, 1987, in The Indian Historical Review, 20: 1-2, July 1993 & January 1994, pp. 159-60.